Retirement parties offer a time to reminisce, but the retirement gala held Saturday for Bowie High School music teacher Eleanor Minor served as an entire history lesson on the foundation of the Bowie musical theater department.
With 34 years in the Prince George's County School System and 18 at BHS, Minor is credited with restarting the school's theater department and planting the seeds for the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts.
At the retirement gala, more than 60 students from the last 17 years of musical theater productions returned to sing their former lead roles in a tribute production held on the BCPA's stage.
"This is like the high school reunion you want to go to," said 1999 graduate Christy Ellis. "[Minor] and the choir program pretty much made high school for me."
Minor's husband, Rich Minor, organized the tribute and kept it a secret from her until they arrived at the BCPA.
"There were numerous students there that I hadn't seen or heard from since they'd left," said Eleanor Minor, 56, of Davidsonville after the event. "It was very flattering, and I was very humbled by the number of students who returned."
Former students said they thought nothing of making the trip.
Camille Thomas, a 1995 graduate, came all the way from New York City. She said Minor had been her favorite teacher since middle school when she attended Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Beltsville where Minor taught before moving to BHS. When Thomas heard about the retirement celebration she said it was a no-brainer that she would attend.
Old costumes dating all the way back to the first performance of "West Side Story" in 1993 were displayed in one room, while pictures of cast members and props were on display in the theater entrance. More than 700 tickets were sold for the event, said Mary Nusser, the Bowie High Alumni Association president.
David Spells, a 2003 graduate, recalled one of his favorite memories of Minor was her appearing on stage in character during performances to surprise the cast.
"We never knew when she was going to come out," he said, recalling a men's locker room scene in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" when Minor came on stage dressed as a man. "But there's Mrs. Minor out there dressed as a man and we have to hold it together and not crack up."
Eddie Haggerty, who directed plays with Minor from the beginning, said the program started completely from scratch. But by demanding top notch professionalism and never making excuses for the program because it was "high school theater," they were able to build a solid reputation for great shows and excellent talent.
Looking back on her career, Minor said she was proud of all that she had accomplished with her students.
"I felt like I had accomplished everything you could hope to accomplish in a teaching position," she said. "I was glad that I finished as strongly and as enthusiastically as I was when I started."
E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.
